Difference between revisions of "Diocese of Sourozh"

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The '''Diocese of Sourozh''' is the [[jurisdiction]] of the [[Church of Russia|Moscow Patriarchate]] in Great Britain and Ireland. It was founded in 1962 by [[Metropolitan]] [[Anthony (Bloom) of Sourozh]] and takes its name from a defunct [[diocese]] in the Crimea. Its patron saint is [[Stephen of Sourozh]]. Its temporary [[ruling bishop]] is Archbishop [[Innokenty (Vasilyev) of Korsun]] (head of [[Diocese of Korsun|Moscow's diocese in Western Europe]]), following the forced retirement of Bishop [[Basil (Osborne) of Sergievo]].  The assistant hierarch is Archbishop Anatoly of Kerch.
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The '''Diocese of Sourozh''' is a [[diocese]] of the [[Church of Russia|Moscow Patriarchate]] in the United Kingdom. The Diocese was founded in 1962 by [[Metropolitan]] [[Anthony (Bloom) of Sourozh]] and takes its name from an ancient diocese in the Crimea which no longer has a [[bishop]]. The patron [[saint]] of the diocese is [[Stephen of Sourozh]]. The current ruling [[bishop]] is His Eminence [[Elisey (Ganaba) of Sourozh]] and the assistant hierarch is Archbishop [[Anatoly (Kuznetsov) of Kerch|Anatoly of Kerch]]. The diocese does not have [[jurisdiction]] over the stavropegic churches of the Moscow Patriarchate in Dublin and Manchester.
  
The diocese has about thirty [[parish]]es in Great Britain and Ireland. It also publishes a journal, founded by Anthony in 1980, entitled ''Sourozh''.
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Archbishop [[Innocent (Vasilyev) of Vilnius|Innocent (Vasilyev) of Korsun]] (head of Russia's [[Russian Orthodox Diocese of Chersonese|diocese in Western Europe]]) served as the temporary ruling bishop the Diocese of Sourozh following the forced retirement of Bishop [[Basil (Osborne) of Amphipolis|Basil (Osborne) of Sergievo]]. Before Bp. Basil, administrator of the Diocese of Sourozh from 2003 to 2006, was forced into retirement, the diocese had about thirty [[parish]]es in the United Kingdom. On [[May 31]], 2010, the [[Holy Synod]] of the [[Church of Russia]] announced the addition of eighteen new parishes to the diocese. [[http://www.interfax-religion.com/?act=news&div=7328]] The diocese publishes a journal, founded by Metr. Anthony in 1980, entitled ''Sourozh''.  
  
==Recent history==
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==History==
[[Image:Anthony Bloom.jpg|right|thumb|200px|Metr. [[Anthony (Bloom) of Sourozh]]]]
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[[Image:Anthony Bloom.jpg|right|thumb|200px|Metr. [[Anthony (Bloom) of Sourozh]]]]  
During Metr. Anthony's tenure, he worked to make the diocese localized, that is, not merely a diocese for Russian immigrants, but a church viable and integrated into British and Irish life.  This integration provided, among other things, for an increase in the use of English, according to the local pastoral needs of each [[parish]].
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In the initial decades of the existence of the diocese, the diocese was centred in London and Oxford, consisting mainly of upper middle-class ex-Anglican [[conversion|converts]] and families of the first emigration from Russia following the 1917 revolution. During these years the political situation between the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union meant that the Moscow Patriarchate could exercise very little control over the Sourozh diocese. Metr. Anthony encouraged the development of a distinctive style, liturgical practice and ethos within the diocese which reflected the fusion of Franco-Russian emigres and Oxford-London ex-Anglicans in the diocese. This included native-language [[Divine Liturgy|liturgy]], frequent communion, discression over confession before each [[communion]], a relaxed attitude to traditional Russian church dress (e.g. for women: skirts and headscarves), permission of marriage on Saturdays, and an avoidance of celebrating the full hierarchical liturgy according to the standard [[typikon]] of the Russian Orthodox Church.
  
After Metr. Anthony's death in 2003, administration of the diocese was given by the [[Holy Synod]] of Moscow to [[Bishop]] [[Basil (Osborne) of Sergievo]], who had been Anthony's [[auxiliary bishop|auxiliary]].  He was never named as the ruling bishop of the diocese but remained temporary administrator until his removal by Moscow on [[May 9]], 2006.
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From the last years of the Soviet Union, large numbers of Russian Orthodox economic migrants arrived in the United Kingdom from the Russian lands. Many were surprised by and were uncomfortable with and unhappy at the idiosyncracies of ethos, style, and liturgical practice which were standard in the diocese. A vocal minority of these Orthodox from Russia began to complain vociferously to the Diocese and, later, to the Moscow Patriarchate itself. In their own eyes, they sought the conformity of the ethos and liturgical practice of the diocese with the standard [[typikon]] of the Russian Orthodox Church; in the eyes of the Oxford-London ex-Anglicans, this amounted to the [[Russification]] of the diocese. During the lifetime of Metr. Anthony, tensions reached a high-point during the 2002 when suffragan Bishop [[Hilarion (Alfeyev) of Vienna|Hilarion (Alfeyev)]] was the suffragan Bishop of Kerch.
  
After the fall of Communism and breakup of the Soviet Union, a major influx of new Russian immigration came into Great Britain.  Many of these immigrants found church life in the diocese to be foreign to them, owing to its adaptations to British life. A vocal minority of these new immigrants began working to re-[[Russification|Russify]] Sourozh such that conflict began to emerge between those who wished to remain as they had been and those who wished to "regularize" church life according to models elsewhere in the Russian [[diaspora]].
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Shortly before his death, in a manner which is not standard in the Russian Orthodox Church (where bishops are normally appointed by the [[Holy Synod]]), Metr. Anthony nominated as his successor Bishop [[Basil (Osborne) of Sergievo]]. After Metr. Anthony's death in 2003, the [[Holy Synod]] of Moscow appointed Basil administrator of the diocese, but did not name him ruling bishop.
  
 
[[Image:Basil Osborne.jpg|left|thumb|150px|Bp. [[Basil (Osborne) of Sergievo]]]]
 
[[Image:Basil Osborne.jpg|left|thumb|150px|Bp. [[Basil (Osborne) of Sergievo]]]]
Tensions between the establishment in Sourozh and the new voices came to a head in April 2006, when Bp. Basil requested from the Moscow Patriarchate that he and any in his diocese who wished to follow him be allowed [[canonical release]] to enter into the [[Ecumenical Patriarchate]], specifically the [[Russian Orthodox Exarchate in Western Europe]], a diocese of parishes of Russian tradition whose bishop answers to the Ecumenical Patriarch. The character of the Exarchate is similar to the course charted by Anthony in that its parishes are mainly using local languages and appealing to the cultures of Western Europe.
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Tensions within the establishment of the Diocese of Sourozh worsened considerably in the years following Metr. Anthony's death. They escalated significantly in December 2005, with the [[suspension]] of Fr. [[Andrei Teterin]] by Bishop Basil, on grounds of disobedience, following a speech which Fr. Andrei made, in which he denied that Metr. Anthony was a Father of the Church, asserted that one must be loyal to the authorities of one's own [[jurisdiction]], and insisted that the 'Russian Christian movement' should have the word 'Orthodox' in its name. After pressure from Moscow, Fr. Andrei was reinstated—although he continued to be an active agent undermining the local episcopal authority of Bp. Basil.
  
Before making the request, Basil provided for the canonical release of any of his [[clergy]] who wished to go elsewhere, and about half have petitioned the [[Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain]] and received favorable response.[http://www.oca.org/News.asp?ID=1013&SID=19]  Basil's rationale for the request was that the patriarchate could continue to provide pastoral care for those who wished to duplicate Russian church life on British soil, while he could care for those who wished to continue life as it had been under Anthony.
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Matters came to a head in April 2006, when Bp. Basil, without first consulting his diocese or [[clergy]], wrote to the [[Alexei II (Ridiger) of Moscow|Patriarch of Moscow]], requesting that he and any clergy in his diocese who wished to follow him be granted [[canonical release]] to enter into the [[Ecumenical Patriarchate]], to form a diocese parallel to the [[Russian Orthodox Exarchate in Western Europe]]—a diocese of parishes of Russian tradition whose bishop was under the jurisdiction of the [[Ecumenical Patriarch]], and which used a liturgical style and ethos similar to the early days of Sourozh. Basil cited as his motivation (a) the active support of the Moscow Patriarchate's Department of External Church Relations for the group in Sourozh undermining him, something he took to constitute the non-canonical interference of one bishop in the diocese of another; (b) the desire to be able to provide adequate pastoral care for those who wished to continue in the earlier ethos and liturgical style of the Sourozh diocese. Shortly after writing to the [[Alexei II (Ridiger) of Moscow|Patriarch of Moscow]], Basil wrote to the Ecumenical Patriarch, asking to be received with those clergy who followed him, as a diocese in the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
  
Initially, the Patriarch of Moscow, [[Alexei II (Ridiger) of Moscow|Alexei II]], asked to discuss the matter with Basil, but demanded that he retract his letter to Constantinople, in which he had broached the subject with Ecumenical Patriarch [[Bartholomew I (Archontonis) of Constantinople|Bartholomew I]]. Basil refused to retract the letter.
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Initially, the Patriarch of Moscow, [[Alexei II (Ridiger) of Moscow|Alexei II]], asked to discuss the matter with Basil, but when he discovered Basil had already written to Constantinople, he demanded retraction of this letter and refused to meet Basil until he received such retraction. Basil refused to retract the letter and learned soon afterwards that the Moscow Patriarchate intended to retire him.
  
In response to the request of Bp. Basil, [[Archbishop]] [[Innokenty (Vasilyev) of Korsun]] was dispatched by Moscow and read out a patriarchal decree at the Sourozh [[cathedral]] in London retiring Basil and placing control of the diocese under Innokenty. Basil's response was to appeal to the arbitration of the Ecumenical Patriarch, citing [[canons]] 9 and 17 of the [[Fourth Ecumenical Council]], which grant to clergy the right of appeal to Constantinople if they have a dispute with their superior hierarch.[http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/NPNF2-14/Npnf2-14-105.htm]
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After learning of this intention, but before being retired, Basil issued letters of canonical release to all his clergy, letters either held back from, or backdated to, the beginning of February. This was interpreted by some as a deliberate attempt to sabotage the diocese, although this matter&mdash;like the canonical validity of the letters themselves&mdash;was contested between the pro-Moscow and pro-Paris Exarchate groups. (Moscow's objection was that letters of release are given by one bishop to another, releasing a priest from the first bishop's omophorion to go under that of the second bishop; these letters, however. were (a) given to the clergy themselves, ''en masse'', and (b) did not specify to what bishop they were being released.)<ref>[http://www.sourozh.org/info/letters/letter220506.html Letter of Archbishop Innokenty of Korsun to the clergy of the Diocese of Sourozh 22 May 2006]</ref>
  
On [[June 8]], 2006, the [[holy synod]] of the Ecumenical Patriarchate announced that it had considered Basil's appeal and unanimously decided to receive him into its Russian Orthodox Exarchate in Western Europe as an [[auxiliary bishop]]. It then elected him to this position with the title of ''Bishop of Amphipolis'', serving as an auxiliary of Abp. [[Gabriel (de Vylder) of Komana]][http://www.ec-patr.gr/docdisplay.php?lang=en&id=678&tla=en] and having authority over a vicariate of the parishes which have chosen to follow him into the Ecumenical Patriarchate.[http://www.exarchat.org/article.php3?id_article=563]
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On [[May 9]], 2006, the Holy Synod of the Church of Russia peremptorily announced Basil's retirement. [[Archbishop]] [[Innocent (Vasilyev) of Vilnius|Innokenty (Vasilyev) of Korsun]], as temporary administrator of the diocese, was sent by the Moscow patriarchate to read a patriarchal decree at the Sourozh [[cathedral]] in London retiring Basil and placing control of the diocese under Innokenty. Basil's response was to appeal to the arbitration of the Ecumenical Patriarch, citing [[canons]] 9 and 17 of the [[Fourth Ecumenical Council]], which grant to clergy the right of appeal to the exarch of their diocese or to 'the throne of the imperial city of Constantinople'.<ref>[http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf214.xi.xviii.ix.html Canon IX] and [http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf214.xi.xviii.xvii.html Canon XVII] of the Fourth Ecumenical Council</ref> Bishop Basil and his supporters interpreted these canons to demarcate a general ecclesiastical principle that in general a dispute with a superior hierarch may be referred to Constantinople. This interpretation was rejected by Moscow.<ref>[http://www.mospat.ru/archive/31763.htm Священный Синод вынес постановление в связи с решением Константинопольского Патриархата относительно принятия епископа Василия (Осборна) в свою юрисдикцию]</ref>
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On [[June 8]], 2006, the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate announced that it had considered Basil's appeal and unanimously decided to receive him into the Russian Orthodox Exarchate in Western Europe as an [[auxiliary bishop]]. The Holy Synod of the [[Church of Constantinople]] then elected him as the hierarch of his group with the title of ''Bishop of Amphipolis'', serving as an auxiliary of Abp. [[Gabriel (de Vylder) of Komana]]<ref>[http://www.ec-patr.org/docdisplay.php?lang=en&id=678&tla=en Press Release for the election of Bishop Basil of Amphipolis]</ref> and having authority over a vicariate of the parishes which have chosen to follow him into the Ecumenical Patriarchate.<ref>[http://www.exarchat.org/spip.php?article561 Communiqué N° 12-06 of the Council of the Archdiocese]</ref> This represents a reduced acceptance of Basil's request (which was to be received as a diocesan bishop of a diocese ''alongside'' the Franco-Russian exarchate). Moreover, Constantinople's pronouncement was based not merely on the two canons cited by Bishop Basil in his appeal, but also by canon 28 of the Fourth Ecumenical Council, the canon which, according to the Patriarchate of Constantinople's interpretation, grants jurisdiction of all 'barbarian' lands (i.e. all lands outside canonically defined territories) to Constantinople, an interpretation that has been disputed by Moscow.
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On [[October 6]], 2006, the Holy Synod in Moscow announced that Archimandrite [[Elisey (Ganaba) of Sourozh|Elisey (Ganaba)]], who was head of the Russian Spiritual Mission in Jerusalem, was to be [[consecration of a bishop|consecrated]] Bishop of Bogorodsky, assistant bishop of the Diocese of Korsun, with responsibility for the administration of the Diocese of Sourozh.<ref name=sourozh2>http://sourozh.org/info/docs/synod061006_111_en.html</ref>
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On [[December 27]], 2007, Bp. Elisey was appointed the ruling Bishop of the Diocese of Sourozh and on [[February 2]], 2010 he was elevated to the rank of Archbishop.
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==Ruling bishops==
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*[[Anthony (Bloom) of Sourozh|Anthony (Bloom)]]  1957 - 2003
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*[[Elisey (Ganaba) of Sourozh|Elisey (Ganaba)]]  2007- Present
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==References==
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<references />
  
 
==External links==
 
==External links==
*[http://www.sourozh.org/ Official diocesan website], under Abp. Innokenty
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*[http://www.sourozh.org/ Official diocesan website]
**[http://www.sourozh.info/ Sourozh.info], including news, information and statements from Abp. Innokenty
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*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diocese_of_Sourozh ''Diocese of Sourozh'' at Wikipedia]
*[http://www.dioceseinfo.org/ Dioceseinfo.org], including news, information and statements by those loyal to Bp. Basil (Osborne)
 
**[http://www.dioceseinfo.org/HISTORICAL_BACKGROUND/Sourozh/Statutes.htm Diocesan statutes]
 
**[http://www.dioceseinfo.org/HISTORICAL_BACKGROUND/Sourozh/Annual%20Report%20(2005).pdf 2005 Annual report of the diocese]
 
*[http://www.cathedral.sourozh.org/ Cathedral website]
 
*[http://users.ox.ac.uk/~manc0343/canons_sourozh.html On the canonical situation of Russian Orthodoxy in Britain], by [[M.C. Steenberg]]
 
  
[[Category:Dioceses]]
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[[Category:Dioceses|Sourozh]]
 
[[Category:Moscow Patriarchate Dioceses|Sourozh]]
 
[[Category:Moscow Patriarchate Dioceses|Sourozh]]
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[[Category:Orthodoxy in the United Kingdom|Sourozh]]

Latest revision as of 01:58, January 27, 2012

The Diocese of Sourozh is a diocese of the Moscow Patriarchate in the United Kingdom. The Diocese was founded in 1962 by Metropolitan Anthony (Bloom) of Sourozh and takes its name from an ancient diocese in the Crimea which no longer has a bishop. The patron saint of the diocese is Stephen of Sourozh. The current ruling bishop is His Eminence Elisey (Ganaba) of Sourozh and the assistant hierarch is Archbishop Anatoly of Kerch. The diocese does not have jurisdiction over the stavropegic churches of the Moscow Patriarchate in Dublin and Manchester.

Archbishop Innocent (Vasilyev) of Korsun (head of Russia's diocese in Western Europe) served as the temporary ruling bishop the Diocese of Sourozh following the forced retirement of Bishop Basil (Osborne) of Sergievo. Before Bp. Basil, administrator of the Diocese of Sourozh from 2003 to 2006, was forced into retirement, the diocese had about thirty parishes in the United Kingdom. On May 31, 2010, the Holy Synod of the Church of Russia announced the addition of eighteen new parishes to the diocese. [[1]] The diocese publishes a journal, founded by Metr. Anthony in 1980, entitled Sourozh.

History

In the initial decades of the existence of the diocese, the diocese was centred in London and Oxford, consisting mainly of upper middle-class ex-Anglican converts and families of the first emigration from Russia following the 1917 revolution. During these years the political situation between the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union meant that the Moscow Patriarchate could exercise very little control over the Sourozh diocese. Metr. Anthony encouraged the development of a distinctive style, liturgical practice and ethos within the diocese which reflected the fusion of Franco-Russian emigres and Oxford-London ex-Anglicans in the diocese. This included native-language liturgy, frequent communion, discression over confession before each communion, a relaxed attitude to traditional Russian church dress (e.g. for women: skirts and headscarves), permission of marriage on Saturdays, and an avoidance of celebrating the full hierarchical liturgy according to the standard typikon of the Russian Orthodox Church.

From the last years of the Soviet Union, large numbers of Russian Orthodox economic migrants arrived in the United Kingdom from the Russian lands. Many were surprised by and were uncomfortable with and unhappy at the idiosyncracies of ethos, style, and liturgical practice which were standard in the diocese. A vocal minority of these Orthodox from Russia began to complain vociferously to the Diocese and, later, to the Moscow Patriarchate itself. In their own eyes, they sought the conformity of the ethos and liturgical practice of the diocese with the standard typikon of the Russian Orthodox Church; in the eyes of the Oxford-London ex-Anglicans, this amounted to the Russification of the diocese. During the lifetime of Metr. Anthony, tensions reached a high-point during the 2002 when suffragan Bishop Hilarion (Alfeyev) was the suffragan Bishop of Kerch.

Shortly before his death, in a manner which is not standard in the Russian Orthodox Church (where bishops are normally appointed by the Holy Synod), Metr. Anthony nominated as his successor Bishop Basil (Osborne) of Sergievo. After Metr. Anthony's death in 2003, the Holy Synod of Moscow appointed Basil administrator of the diocese, but did not name him ruling bishop.

Tensions within the establishment of the Diocese of Sourozh worsened considerably in the years following Metr. Anthony's death. They escalated significantly in December 2005, with the suspension of Fr. Andrei Teterin by Bishop Basil, on grounds of disobedience, following a speech which Fr. Andrei made, in which he denied that Metr. Anthony was a Father of the Church, asserted that one must be loyal to the authorities of one's own jurisdiction, and insisted that the 'Russian Christian movement' should have the word 'Orthodox' in its name. After pressure from Moscow, Fr. Andrei was reinstated—although he continued to be an active agent undermining the local episcopal authority of Bp. Basil.

Matters came to a head in April 2006, when Bp. Basil, without first consulting his diocese or clergy, wrote to the Patriarch of Moscow, requesting that he and any clergy in his diocese who wished to follow him be granted canonical release to enter into the Ecumenical Patriarchate, to form a diocese parallel to the Russian Orthodox Exarchate in Western Europe—a diocese of parishes of Russian tradition whose bishop was under the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarch, and which used a liturgical style and ethos similar to the early days of Sourozh. Basil cited as his motivation (a) the active support of the Moscow Patriarchate's Department of External Church Relations for the group in Sourozh undermining him, something he took to constitute the non-canonical interference of one bishop in the diocese of another; (b) the desire to be able to provide adequate pastoral care for those who wished to continue in the earlier ethos and liturgical style of the Sourozh diocese. Shortly after writing to the Patriarch of Moscow, Basil wrote to the Ecumenical Patriarch, asking to be received with those clergy who followed him, as a diocese in the Ecumenical Patriarchate.

Initially, the Patriarch of Moscow, Alexei II, asked to discuss the matter with Basil, but when he discovered Basil had already written to Constantinople, he demanded retraction of this letter and refused to meet Basil until he received such retraction. Basil refused to retract the letter and learned soon afterwards that the Moscow Patriarchate intended to retire him.

After learning of this intention, but before being retired, Basil issued letters of canonical release to all his clergy, letters either held back from, or backdated to, the beginning of February. This was interpreted by some as a deliberate attempt to sabotage the diocese, although this matter—like the canonical validity of the letters themselves—was contested between the pro-Moscow and pro-Paris Exarchate groups. (Moscow's objection was that letters of release are given by one bishop to another, releasing a priest from the first bishop's omophorion to go under that of the second bishop; these letters, however. were (a) given to the clergy themselves, en masse, and (b) did not specify to what bishop they were being released.)[1]

On May 9, 2006, the Holy Synod of the Church of Russia peremptorily announced Basil's retirement. Archbishop Innokenty (Vasilyev) of Korsun, as temporary administrator of the diocese, was sent by the Moscow patriarchate to read a patriarchal decree at the Sourozh cathedral in London retiring Basil and placing control of the diocese under Innokenty. Basil's response was to appeal to the arbitration of the Ecumenical Patriarch, citing canons 9 and 17 of the Fourth Ecumenical Council, which grant to clergy the right of appeal to the exarch of their diocese or to 'the throne of the imperial city of Constantinople'.[2] Bishop Basil and his supporters interpreted these canons to demarcate a general ecclesiastical principle that in general a dispute with a superior hierarch may be referred to Constantinople. This interpretation was rejected by Moscow.[3]

On June 8, 2006, the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate announced that it had considered Basil's appeal and unanimously decided to receive him into the Russian Orthodox Exarchate in Western Europe as an auxiliary bishop. The Holy Synod of the Church of Constantinople then elected him as the hierarch of his group with the title of Bishop of Amphipolis, serving as an auxiliary of Abp. Gabriel (de Vylder) of Komana[4] and having authority over a vicariate of the parishes which have chosen to follow him into the Ecumenical Patriarchate.[5] This represents a reduced acceptance of Basil's request (which was to be received as a diocesan bishop of a diocese alongside the Franco-Russian exarchate). Moreover, Constantinople's pronouncement was based not merely on the two canons cited by Bishop Basil in his appeal, but also by canon 28 of the Fourth Ecumenical Council, the canon which, according to the Patriarchate of Constantinople's interpretation, grants jurisdiction of all 'barbarian' lands (i.e. all lands outside canonically defined territories) to Constantinople, an interpretation that has been disputed by Moscow.

On October 6, 2006, the Holy Synod in Moscow announced that Archimandrite Elisey (Ganaba), who was head of the Russian Spiritual Mission in Jerusalem, was to be consecrated Bishop of Bogorodsky, assistant bishop of the Diocese of Korsun, with responsibility for the administration of the Diocese of Sourozh.[6]

On December 27, 2007, Bp. Elisey was appointed the ruling Bishop of the Diocese of Sourozh and on February 2, 2010 he was elevated to the rank of Archbishop.

Ruling bishops

References

External links